My current system is a P4 1.5GHz, 768MB RAM, SB Audigy2 ZS Plat. Pro, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro128MB, 300GB Seagate PATA, 18GB IBM SCSI, Lite-On SHM-165H6S DVD burner, Lite-On SOHC-5235K combo CD-RW/DVD-ROM.
Anyway, I'm not really interested in buying an entirely new system at this point, as aside from the processor and memory card most of this system's stuff serves me fairly well. I'm not big into new games... in fact the majority of hte games I have are pre-1995 (big into the Sierra action games like King's Quest, etc.) and some DOS games.
To get to the point, I'm looking for a decent non-gaming video card to boost the computer's HD playback and drive a new monitor I'm planning on getting soon (Samsung Syncmaster 215TW). Currently, my computer can *almost* handle 720p HD videos through Quicktime, so I imagine a new card would eliminate the remaining lag, especially since the X1600s are supposed to reduce load on the CPU by having some amount of hardware decoding for certain HD formats, including the one that Quicktime uses.
I don't want to spend that much on the card, and while I realize the X800 and X850 seem to be better thought of here (can anybody clarify exactly what about them is better; I haven't looked much into the X800s due to the higher price). My brother-in-law works for ATI, so I get video cards at about half off, so the X1600 will come to $114 canadian, while the cheapest of the X800s would still seem to be around $200 with the discount.
So, what's the general consensus on the X1600 512MB AGP card? Is it worth getting?
Anyway, I'm not really interested in buying an entirely new system at this point, as aside from the processor and memory card most of this system's stuff serves me fairly well. I'm not big into new games... in fact the majority of hte games I have are pre-1995 (big into the Sierra action games like King's Quest, etc.) and some DOS games.
To get to the point, I'm looking for a decent non-gaming video card to boost the computer's HD playback and drive a new monitor I'm planning on getting soon (Samsung Syncmaster 215TW). Currently, my computer can *almost* handle 720p HD videos through Quicktime, so I imagine a new card would eliminate the remaining lag, especially since the X1600s are supposed to reduce load on the CPU by having some amount of hardware decoding for certain HD formats, including the one that Quicktime uses.
I don't want to spend that much on the card, and while I realize the X800 and X850 seem to be better thought of here (can anybody clarify exactly what about them is better; I haven't looked much into the X800s due to the higher price). My brother-in-law works for ATI, so I get video cards at about half off, so the X1600 will come to $114 canadian, while the cheapest of the X800s would still seem to be around $200 with the discount.
So, what's the general consensus on the X1600 512MB AGP card? Is it worth getting?
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